A Nate Funny

So, Ryan was a TOTAL punk this weekend. He continously back-talked Randy over and over. Randy blew up at him yesterday and Ryan got grounded etc, etc. But during all the commotion, Nate interjected his thoughts and said "Shutcher mouf, bruder!" pointing his little chubby finger at Ryan. Randy and I stiffled giggles as best we could. But that was freakin FUNNY!!!

What a wonderful day...

Today is my 38th birthday. I'm getting up there in years... What a great day though. I decided to work from home, so I set up my spot in my bed, with my bed tray table and my laptop.

I heard from so many of my wonderful friends and family. My daddy called first thing this morning. While he was calling, apparently my sister Lindsay was leaving me a birthday song on my voicemail. Then my mom called, also singing me her very special song that she sings to us on our birthdays. Emails, calls and text messages came in throughout the day, from so many special friends old and new, far and near. I am so blessed. I even got 2 bouquets of flowers from two of my very best friends, Robin and Jami.

Tonight, we went to my dad's for dinner. It was a wonderful evening. My daddy even cooked steaks for us on the grill which was such a special treat b/c my daddy just learned how to cook toast about 6 months ago.

Anyway it was a really nice day and I feel so thankful to have such a wonderful family and such amazing friends. :-)

Mom had surgery today

My mom had a lumpectomy this morning. The lumps were small and contained and had not spread to lymph nodes or anything. She is doing great and will be home tonight! We are all so relieved that it wasn't more serious. She'll have to undergo 5 weeks of radiation treatments, but things could be a lot worse. Pic from Friday night when we celebrated her birthday:

Laney, kickin' back after a meal

Another brag

Nate just counted to ten!! He's 21 months old, for chissake!!! He got another note yesterday that read: "Nathan is a very bright little boy! He learns more and more every day!" This morning he also said "Kitty, get outa here!" He got that from his daddy, not me.

A note from Nate's teacher

I got my first teacher note about Nate!!! It reads:

Today during centers (playtime) Nathan was reading a book that showed different types of foods. He named every food correctly from the beginning to the end! Just wanted you to know he's doing such a great job!

I'm blessed with TWO brilliant sons. I'm so proud!!

Laney Bovermann has arrived today!!

Happy Birthday Laney!! Aunt Lori loves you so much!!

My first car fight (as a mother)

I just experienced my first car fight (as a mother) today. I was driving home from my mom's, both boys in the back seat. Ryan on one side, Nate on the other. Nate grabbed a magazine from Ryan and when Ryan went to grab it back, Nate started shaking it, tearing the pages, etc. I reached back and grabbed it from Nate and gave it back to Ryan, reminding him to keep his stuff out of Nate's reach and then scolding Nate for messing up Ryan's stuff (he's old enough to know better now).

So a minute later, I look back to see Ryan pinching Nates cheek as hard as he could. Nate SCREAMED and cried for a minute or two. And there I was, feeling helpless, driving 70mph down the freeway. Thoughts like "Don't you make me stop this car!!" echoed in my head. I believe this is only the beginning.

My son the bully

Nate is a little bully. When Randy dropped him off at preschool this morning, a bunch of kids were playing with some toys and books. Nate walked over and knocked over the toys they were playing with and took one of the books from a kid. Two of the kids were crying when he walked away from them.

I think we are in for it with this child.

See Bruder?

Nate is talking so much! Wow. His latest is "See Bruder?" (See brother?) He said this last night, as a last minute plea to stay up longer and not go to bed.

His favorite things to say are "A-plane!" "Muk" "Ball" "Ry-nin" (Ryan) "Wait!" "No" "Foood" "Mommy" "Daddy" "Keeeety" "Puppy" and lately "cuuuddle".

But he says so much more. He'll repeat ANYTHING you say to him and will even count. I say "one", he says "two", I say "three" and so on. His favorite number is eight. Everything was eigth for a while. And every letter was "A". Now he says "W". It's funny that he picked such a difficult letter to start off with.

He's 20 months old now and has started in the terrible twos. He pitches fits and melts down when he doesn't get his way. He's a headstrong little guy. Ryan tries to give him love and he smacks Ryan in the face. Brothers.

Here is a pic on New Years Day of Nate being mischievous with his 2 1/2 yr old cousin Logan. As you can see, Nate is big for his age (being a year YOUNGER than Logan).

What's new...

This year has gone by like lightening. Honestly. I guess that's what happens when you get older. Christmas snuck up on us this year too. We've been so busy that we just last night decorated the Christmas tree. I decorated the outside of the house with lights on Sunday. The boys love it, and it's finally put me in the Christmas spirit. I even mailed our Christmas cards today and have wrapped a few presents!

All in all, this year has been a good one. My job with BMC is just perfect for me. I find that everything I do regarding my job is within my comfort zone and allows me to do my job and then go home and not think about work again until the next day. It's a great position for a working mommy like me, who craves that time with her kids.

Randy's job has been questionable recently, but he has been told that BMC would close down its doors before he was ever laid off. And with that, he was given several more groups to manage. We aren't sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing. Randy has been so stressed lately that he hasn't been very fun to live with, plus it's just not got for his health either. After the first of the year, we are going to reassess his situation.

Ryan is in First Grade now. At first, he went through a rough patch regarding discipline. He tends to get silly and misbehave a bit more than he should. His two teachers all but told me they thought he had ADD, so I had him tested. The results showed that, while he is an extremely active kid, he isn't within the ranges where we "should be concerned." I also was shown an article where gifted children are sometimes mislabeled as ADD. He is certainly a smart little guy, making 100's and E+'s on absolutely all his school work. If he has Attention Deficit Disorder, he's obviously paying attention to the school work which is the most important thing at this point. So I've discarded what "the teachers think" and it's business as usual for us. The last few weeks he has actually been behaving better at school. Maybe the Santa Clause factor is working, I don't know.

Nate has become a little pill. He can be funny and laughing, but can also been a mean little guy if he doesn't get his way. It's the terrible twos I'm hoping, and not a sign of what his personality will be like. He is certainly more aggressive than I remember Ryan being. Kids are different. It's interesting to see those differences. I don't think Nate is as much of a momma's boy as Ryan was/is. And that's ok I guess. :-( He does hug and kiss me when he's in the mood, so I guess I will live.

I finally got rid of my beloved Jeep and bought a new car last weekend! I got a Saturn Outlook. I LOVE it. LOVE LOVE LOVE! It’s loaded with features and drives so nice. I was sad to see my Jeep go, but after 8 years and 116,000 miles, it was time for something new.

Snippets from our photo shoot

My sweet friend Susan took our portraits last weekend. Here are some snippets.
www.meminissestudios.com

My Tiger Scout

Ryan has started Cub Scouts. He is having fun with it. I'm his "adult partner" so I go to the meetings with him, and help him with his badges. He got his Pine Wood Derby car kit at the last meeting. Randy will be helping him with that! The race will be in January.

Trevor and Christine are in scouts with us. We have a camping trip scheduled in February. That will be fun (interesting).

Seven and a brown eyed boy

Here's my brown eyed boy and my proud 7 year old with Nanny.

It's a Girl!!!

In other news... Lisa and Ed got married and are having a baby GIRL!!! My mom is beside herself! I can't wait to meet my little baby neice. I love her already!

Happy Birthday to my baby

OMG, it's been a while. Seems like time flies so fast these days.

Today marks the seventh birthday of my baby boy. My little angel. Light of my life. I can't believe he is seven.

He's in the first grade now. Back to his mischeivious ways, he gets bad conduct marks weekly. He's just a boy. The teacher tries to make me think he is ADD. I'm fighting it. He does have his wild moments, but I don't think it's such that he needs to be medicated. The teacher is young and doesn't know how to handle such a high spirited young man.

He is smokin' the baseball field this season too. He cracks that ball almost to fence quite a bit. And he's pretty good at catching too. It's the throwing that he needs some practice with. It'll come. He's like his daddy, good at everything he puts his mind to.

The mark of Ryan's birthday is also the half way point between Nate's 1st and 2nd birthday. Holy moly, he is a busy kid. If anyone is ADD, it's that one. He goes a mile a minute from the second he wakes up, until he falls in bed at 7pm every night, exhausted from the day. And he sleeps till 7am. He is my precious little pumpkin. Loves to give super tight hugs and still loves any and all animals he sees. He also love to go see his brother play "ball".

I really need to post pics. There is so much that has happened in the past few months.

I'm a permanent employee at BMC now. No more "contract" shit. I hated that. I finally feel "accepted". I even won an award ($300) in my department for receiving the most positive feedback on intercompany surveys that my manager sent out. I was so proud of myself. Plus they are paying me ridiculously too. That doesn't suck.

More soon...

We now have tile!

This was taken with my camera phone. Better pics to come...

Early stages

Here are some early stages of our house remodel project that is almost complete:

Booo

Fyi, he didn't make the AA team. They said he wasn't quite ready, which is understandable. He's only been playing for two seasons. We still need to find a team for him though... stay tuned.

AA Ball...

On Sat night, Ryan's old T-ball coach called and asked if Ryan would come to try-outs for a AA team on Sunday. Ryan has been practicing a bit in the off-season and Randy took him to the batting cases a week or so ago, etc.

So Randy took him to the try-out yesterday. He said some of the kids there were amazing. He said Ryan did well. They do coach-pitch and Randy has been practicing with him on that. So the coach started out by lobbing the balls at him slowly. Ryan kept missing. Ryan's old coach told the guy to speed up his pitches, and Ryan started smacking the heck out of them.

They did some drills, Randy said Ryan did fairly well. He played first base for a bit and caught every ball. Randy said it was a little hard for Ryan to get use to throwing to kids that could actually catch. He needs to work on the accuracy of his throwing, yada yada....

Anyway, Randy's stomach has been in KNOTS all day waiting to see if Ryan made the team. He's supposed to find out today. It's pretty funny to see him all worked up over this 7 yr old AA baseball team. Funny stuff.

I think Ryan is a little bit anxious too, but NOTHING compared to his daddy...